Cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system and method thereof

• US 10,108,873 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2017
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chicony Power Technology Co. Ltd. (Chicony Electronics Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Chicony Power Technology Co. Ltd. (Chicony Electronics Company Limited)
• Inventors: Tsai, Jewel, Lee, Kuo-Wei, Lu, Li-Yuan, Chen, Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Azarian, Seyed
• Application Number:
  US15/632,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20180253617A1
• Time in Patent Office: 484 Days
• Field of Search: 382100, 382103-107, 382155, 382162, 382168, 382173, 382181, 382199, 382206, 382209, 382219, 382224, 382232, 382254, 382274, 382276, 382286-291, 382305, 382312, 382321, 3409322, 340933
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/95 structured as a network, e.g. client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules

Abstract

A cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system and a method thereof are disclosed. The system includes a local license-plate-capture module and a cloud license-plate-recognition module. The local license-plate-capture module captures a license plate image when detecting that a vehicle is approaching, obtains position information, modulates the license plate image and the position information into recognition information and sends the recognition information to the cloud license-plate-recognition module. The cloud license-plate-recognition module retrieves and demodulates the recognition information to retrieve a recognition image and index information, selects at least one of a plurality of recognition logics according to the index information, and executes a license-plate-recognizing process on the recognition image by the selected recognition logic for generating license plate information. The disclosed system eliminates operations relating to geographic region and increases the recognition success rate and recognition speed and decreases the equipment hardware cost of local end.

Claims

1. A cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system, comprising:

a local license-plate-capture module, comprising;

a vehicle sensor for detecting whether a vehicle is approaching;

an image capture module electrically connected to the vehicle sensor for capturing a license plate image when the vehicle is approaching;

a global positioning module for obtaining position information;

a local control module electrically connected to the image capture module and the global positioning module for modulating the license plate image and the position information into recognition information; and

a local transmission module electrically connected to the local control module for sending the recognition information externally via Internet; and

a cloud license-plate-recognition module for receiving the recognition information from Internet, demodulating the recognition information to generate a recognition image and an index information, selecting at least one of a plurality of recognition logics based on the index information, and executing an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process on the recognition image via using the selected recognition logic to generate a license plate information,

wherein the cloud license-plate-recognition module comprising;

a plurality of local logic modules respectively corresponding to a plurality of geographic regions for saving the plurality of recognition logics;

a logic selection module connecting to the plurality of local logic modules for recognizing the geographic regions corresponding to the index information, and loading the recognition logic from the local logic module corresponding to the geographic region; and

a license-plate-recognition module connecting to the logic selection module for executing the OCR process on the recognition image via the loaded recognition logic to generate the license plate information,

wherein the logic selection module recognizes another geographic region geographically near the geographic region corresponding to the index information when the license-plate-recognition module fails in recognition, and loads another recognition logic from another local logic module corresponding to another geographic region, the license-plate-recognition module re-executes the OCR process on the recognition image via the loaded another recognition logic to generate the license plate information, and

wherein each of the local license-plate-capture module, the image capture module, the global positioning module, the local control module, the local transmission module, the cloud license-plate-recognition module, the local logic module, the logic selection module and the license-plate-recognition module is performed by a processor.

2. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 1, wherein the cloud license-plate-recognition module comprises a cloud transmission module connecting to the license-plate-recognition module and returning the license plate information to the local transmission module via Internet.

3. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of recognition logics are respectively configured to recognizing a plurality of different character sets, a plurality of character sequences or a plurality of quantities of characters.

4. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of recognition logics are respectively configured to recognizing a plurality of local license plate rules, a plurality of character block arrays or a plurality of license plate color arrays.

5. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 1, wherein the local license-plate-capture module further comprises a request module connecting to the local control module for receiving a search request, the local control module modulates the search request into a search information, and transfers the search information to the cloud license-plate-recognition module via the local transmission module.

6. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 5, wherein the cloud license-plate-recognition module comprises a response module connecting to a plurality of request databases, the response module demodulates the search information to generate a search condition, and selects at least one of the plurality of request databases according to the search condition and searching in the selected request database for obtaining a search result according to the license plate information, the cloud license-plate-recognition module generates a returned result to return to the local license-plate-capture module.

7. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of request databases comprise a vehicle record database, a database refers to policies, regulations and criminal cases, and an environmental regulation database.

8. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 7, wherein the vehicle record database comprises a plurality of vehicle owner identification codes, a plurality of vehicle model identification code and a plurality of vehicle manufacture dates respectively corresponding to a plurality of different license plate information.

9. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 7, wherein the database refers to policies, regulations and criminal cases comprises lost license plate information, criminal cases license plate information or wanted vehicle owner information.

10. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system of claim 7, wherein the environmental regulation database comprises vehicle service life information or vehicle inspection time information.

11. A cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method, for a cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system, the cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition system including a local license-plate-capture module and a cloud license-plate-recognition module, the cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method comprising:

a) capturing a license plate image when the local license-plate-capture module detects that a vehicle is approaching;

b) obtaining position information;

c) modulating the license plate image and the position information into recognition information and sending the recognition information to the cloud license-plate-recognition module;

d) demodulating the recognition information by the cloud license-plate-recognition module to generate a recognition image and index information; and

e) selecting at least one of a plurality of recognition logics based on the index information, and executing an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process on the recognition image via using the selected recognition logic to generate license plate information,

wherein the recognition logics are respectively corresponded to a plurality of geographic regions, the step e) comprises;

e1) recognizing at least one of the geographic regions corresponding to the index information;

e2) loading the recognition logic corresponding to the recognized geographic region; and

e3) executing the OCR process on the recognition image via the loaded recognition logic to generate the license plate information; and

f1) recognizing another geographic region geographically near the geographic region corresponding to the index information upon the cloud license-plate-recognition module failing to recognize;

f2) loading another recognition logic corresponding to the another geographic region; and

f3) re-executing the OCR process on the recognition image via the loaded another recognition logic to generate the license plate information,

wherein each of the local license-plate-capture module and the cloud license-plate-recognition module is performed by a processor.

12. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of recognition logics are respectively configured to recognize a plurality of different character sets, a plurality of character sequences or a plurality of quantities of characters.

13. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method according to claim 11, wherein the plurality of recognition logics are respectively configured to recognize a plurality of local license plate rules of the plurality of geographic regions, a plurality of character block arrays or a plurality of license plate color arrays.

14. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method according to claim 11, comprising the following steps before the step d):

g1) receiving a search request by the local license-plate-capture module; and

g2) modulating the search request into search information, and transferring the search information to the cloud license-plate-recognition module.

15. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method according to claim 14, comprising the following steps before the step g2):

h1) demodulating the search information by the cloud license-plate-recognition module to generate a search condition, and

h2) selecting at least one of a plurality of request databases according to the search condition, wherein the plurality of request databases comprise a vehicle record database, a database refers to policies, regulations and criminal cases, and an environmental regulation database.

16. The cloud-based transregional license-plate-recognition method according to claim 15, comprising the following steps after the step e) and the step h2):

i1) searching in the selected request database for obtaining a search result according to the license plate information; and

i2) generating a returned result according to the search result to return to the local license-plate-capture module.